Pipeline Explosion Hits Nigeria’s Oil Production and Exports | OilPrice.com
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Breaking News:
The Trans-Niger Pipeline, one of Nigeria’s biggest pipelines carrying crude from the Niger Delta to the Bonny terminal, was rocked by a powerful explosion on Monday night, just as OPEC’s top African producer had started to raise oil production and exports.
The explosion at Bodo, Gokana Local Government Area of Rivers State, caused a massive fire at the section of the pipeline in the area, Nigerian media report.
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As of early Tuesday local time, the authorities haven’t announced what caused the explosion—vandalism, theft, or some incident.
While the cause of the explosion has yet to be investigated and announced, there is already speculation that the blast could be the result of sabotage, in view of the threats that militant groups in the area have recently made, Nigerian outlet Vanguard reports. The militants have threatened to attack oil infrastructure in the Rivers state amid an ongoing political crisis between the state and the federal government over federal money allocation to Rivers.
The pipeline is operated by Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC) and transports crude oil from the oilfields in the Rivers and Bayelsa states to the Bonny export terminal which loads the Bonny Light grade, one of Nigeria’s premium crudes.
The new setback in Nigeria’s oil industry comes just as the country has increased its crude oil production in recent months. In February, Nigeria is estimated to have exceeded its OPEC+ quota thanks to higher exports and increased demand from the newest African refinery, Dangote.
Nigeria began to raise its oil production last year, after years during which it consistently failed to pump to its OPEC+ quota due to oil theft and vandalism and struggles to launch new projects.
Oil theft and pipeline vandalism have long plagued Nigeria’s upstream oil and gas industry, driving majors out of the biggest OPEC producer in Africa and often resulting in force majeure at the key crude oil export terminals.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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